Watchdog group: Iran to jail protest leader

By the Associated Press | January 17, 2013 | 10:33 AM EST

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A media watchdog group says the founder of an Iranian protest group led by mothers has been ordered to begin a six-month prison sentence after being convicted of anti-government activity.

Reporters Without Borders appealed Thursday for Iranian authorities not to jail Mansoureh Behkish.

She started the protest group, which was inspired by mothers battling abuses and executions of perceived dissidents following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

Activists say she has been ordered to report to Tehran's Evin prison on Jan. 29.

Behkish was sentenced in December 2011 for protests against crackdowns that followed the disputed re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009. She has been free since her conviction.